Expansion Era
The term Expansion Era refers to the period between Year 1 and Year 145, immediately after the Colonial Crisis War, during which Human civilization first became interstellar and took to expanding across the stars. It is a nostalgic period for modern human historiography and is often told as a series of heroic "epics" and courageous endeavors to explore and settle the Galaxy. The Exploration Fleet lead the way during this time and its Grand Surveyor Captain was issued the Grand Seal for most of the period, up until the very end. Famous expeditions motivated by exploration were dispatched, the first of which being the Blooming Flower Expedition, followed by the Campos Expedition and the Ricardo Expedition. Contact with other sapient starfaring species was made, the most prominent worlds of the Human Domain were explored and settled, trade routes were created, and mankind underwent a scientific, social, and economic revolution, transitioning to an interstellar mindset. The first human wars to be fought primarily in space took place, the first of which being the Kuiper War. Humans expanded rapidly during this period, perhaps the fastest of any species in recorded history. This worried the humans' early allies and benefactors, the Ishamshuk Empire. This rapid expansion was difficult to centralize and regulate, and so the seeds of Mega-conglomerate dominance over the economic sphere were sown, and grew throughout the period. The Corporate Era (sometimes called the Consulate Era) began in 146, when the CEO of Tritach was given a permanent seat on the council, thus ending the period known as the Expansion Era. Beginning: First Landings and the Kuiper War In the aftermath of the Colonial Crisis War, there was only one extra-solar colony: that of Hercules, established by the legendary Andor Bjornson in the Alpha Centauri star system. Ten years later, when the Kuiper War began, there were already more than a hundred. star galleons built at Earth carried tens of thousands of colonists to habitable worlds among the stars, trailing behind surveyor fleets lead by the first Starship captains. Much of the space that mankind was moving into was uninhabited, at least, by any starfaring species. Non-sapient life was usually domesticated by the locals and turned into livestock or pets. Pre-starfaring civilizations were usually exterminated outright, simply unable to compete with unimpeded human encroachment. The post-war state of humankind at this point was conducive to expansion. A large pool of veteran soldiers, left largely unemployed, found work in the exploration fleets as security for expeditions and as garrisons for early settlements. Wartime mobilization had also lead to powerful industries largely in the control of governments that were interested in seeing the Stellar Empire bloom. Expeditions The Exploration Fleet conducted many adventurous expeditions into the unknown to survey uninhabited star systems, and these expeditions were also responsible for settling colonies in many places. These first colonies developed independently of corporate control, which is contrary to the case in later eras, and as a result became strong regional influences for centuries to come. Out of all human settlements spread across the stars, it is those of the Expansion Era that are the most wealthy, powerful, and influential. All information gathered about previously uncharted places was sent to Earth, and more specifically the General Archive of the Stars. There are three such archives, one on The Moon, one in Trondheim, Norway, and another in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Blooming Flower Expedition The first-ever human expedition established with the deliberate intention of colonizing as well as prospecting uncharted stars, consisted of several galleons and a military escort provided by the United Armada. The flagship was the FdE Flor Floresciente, meaning blooming flower, which gave the name to the expedition. The surveyor captain was Diego Petrelli, and the Stellar Cartographer was a Starborne named Ernesto Ricos, though of course each Starship had its own Pilot. It was also the smallest expedition. In total, there were about 135,000 colonists split across five transport, logistics, and prospecting multi-role star galleons. The expedition's military escort also included a contingent of 2500 FFEL espatiers and about 6,000 FFEL regulars. Exploration Fleet personnel numbered about 900 between all of the FdE starships, and included the captains, senior officers, technicians and engineers of every starship. The expedition was destined to map out various sectors on its way towards the galactic core, towards Ishamshuk and Congress space. It was up to the surveyor captain's discretion to colonize worlds along the way, and conduct trade and diplomacy with any locals that may be encountered. Every so often, a courier was to be sent back to Earth containing all sensor logs, planetary data, and narratives from all senior personnel gathered up until that point. The transmissions formed some of the oldest entries in the General Archive of the Stars. In the last quarter of Year 25, the expedition departed the Solar System on its nearly 1500 light-year Coreward journey. The crew spent just over a year and a half in space, and along the way, six planets were settled, including (in order of settlement and thus distance from Earth): Meghanon, Formos, New Genoa, Revati, Creta, and perhaps most notably, Polaris. Conflict with the Uhara Background The space which humans would expand through was by no means empty. Following the destructive Desan-Tarak Wars, although former slave races like the Ishamshuk Empire were able to extend their own spheres of influence in what was once the territories of the defeated Triple Alliance, the core worlds of the Desan empire were not previously inhabited, and most had been bombarded to the point where they would be undesirable for colonization. The exception to this were of course the Uhara, who tend to live in such places anyway, and numerous Uhara clans saw the "empty" space as suitable for exploitation. The Uhara are always looking to strip new worlds of resources, afterall. Just as the Uhara Invasion of 66,000 years ago was motivated by opportunism. The Ishamshuk attempted to slow the surge of Uhara settlers, terming it the Second Uhara Invasion and began to move into the region to extract Desan artifacts and declared certain worlds under their protection. Mars, as the former capital of the Desan, was one of these worlds, and to enforce its protection an observation post was placed there. Earth was not considered for these protections, but the Uhara were not aware of its resource wealth and hospitable climate, and didn't think to look there in order to avoid an incident with the Ishamshuk over Mars. Inevitably, Ishamshuk efforts could not match the Uhara's ambitions, and before long the worlds that had once been the Desan heartland were ruled by the Uhara, with some notable exceptions for worlds such as Hercules and Durre Manthor as these were, among others, placed under Ishamshuk protection. The Uhara clans were content to satisfy themselves with the mineral wealth of asteroids and gas giants in the region, and occasional rock worlds deemed unimportant, but rarely got their hands on any Desan technology or artifacts, as these were often protected. Surprisingly, over the course of the 50,000 years, there were relatively few all-out engagements between Ishamshuk patrols and Uhara miners. For the most part, both sides avoided provocation and danced around the others' sphere of influence. Several major Uhara kingdoms rose to prominence and fell to obscurity in the region during this time. Also during the next 40,000 years, humans progressed from a stone age proto-civilization into an increasingly globalized society capable of spaceflight. The Ishamshuk observers on Mars noted this progression, reporting to Ichtalu that an emergent civilization was developing on Earth. Category:Eras